This Kiss
by Bandit3
Summary: (A songfic based around the song by Faith Hill.) Some things take time...and others take a lot more time than they should. (Taiora)


THIS KISS - A Songfic by Bandit  
(Okay, this is a songfic. Well, obviously... And the song is 'This Kiss' by Faith Hill. And the first scene is the one from the Digimon Movie, when Sora gets the accidental love letter from Tai. So I think that just about clears everything up. Ta!)  
  
I don't want another heartbreak, I don't need another turn to cry  
  
Sora walks into her room and picks up the laptop. "Stupid Tai," she mutters, turning it on and logging onto her Email account.  
  
I don't want to learn the hard way. "Baby, hello!" Oh, no. Goodbye!  
  
"You have one piece of mail."  
"Well, it's about time," Sora complains, opening the file. As she reads, her face softens, and she smiles.  
  
But you've got me like a rocket shooting straight across the sky  
  
"Stupid Tai..."  
Outside, people mill around the fallen missile, still sticking out of the bay. Gradually, it tilts and falls with a splash.  
  
It's the way you love me, it's a feeling like this  
  
Meanwhile, after a short sprint down the street, Sora hurries up to Tai's front door. Taking a deep breath, she reaches up to mash down a few flyaway strands of hair sticking out at weird angles from under her hat, and then rings the doorbell. As she waits, hands clasped behind her back, she nervously rocks from toe to heel on her feet.  
  
It's centrifugal motion, it's perpetual bliss  
  
"Hello...? Oh! Sora!" Tai answers the door, and freezes, suddenly awkward.  
"Um, hi," Sora says sheepishly. "I, um, came to talk to you."   
Tai swallows. "Look, before you get started," he says quickly, "I'm really sorry about the whole hat thing and all of that, and I honestly didn't mean any of it...I'm not even sure what I *did*," he adds, and then winces.  
  
It's that pivotal moment, it's-ahh-impossible  
  
To his surprise, Sora smiles. "That's okay," she says. "I know you didn't mean it. I could have been a lot more mature, too. So...um, how about we call it even?"  
"Was that an apology?" Tai says, a little confused.  
"More or less," Sora admits, blushing a bit.  
  
This kiss, this kiss, unstoppable  
  
"Sounds good to me, in that case," Tai says cheerfully. "Accepted, and returned." He pauses. "Want to come in? There's snack food...sort of." He sighs, and rolls his eyes to high heaven. "Liver sticks and onion juice...what Izzy didn't eat, that is."  
"Why don't you come over to *my* house?" Sora says when she's done giggling at his woebegone expression. "We've got ice cream."  
"Chocolate?"  
"Double fudge."  
"You're on! Race you there!"  
"Okay, but don't get mad when I beat you!"  
"Yeah, right...hey, get back here! I didn't say 'Go'..."  
  
This kiss, this kiss  
  
(flash forward four years)  
  
Cinderella said to Snow White, 'How does love get so off-course?  
  
Sora and Mimi, now sixteen, are waiting at a bus stop. It's getting dark, and they're both looking impatient.  
"The bus was supposed to come ten minutes ago," Mimi grouses. "My parents are going to have a fit if I'm out much later!"  
"Mama's going to be frantic," Sora says nervously, looking at the ground. "And I can't walk worth a fruit loop in these stupid heels of yours, Mimi."  
  
'All I wanted was a white knight, with a good heart, soft touch, fast horse  
  
"You ladies need a ride?"  
Sora looks up, startled, to see a truck idling at the sidewalk by the bus stop. Tai is leaning out of the driver's side, grinning.  
"Tai!" Sora cries, surprised, and then arches an eyebrow. "I'll take this to mean you passed your field test?"  
"Field and written, easy as driving off an overpass," Tai says confidently. "You're looking at the newest licensed driver to grace the streets of Tokyo."  
  
'Ride me off into the sunset, baby I'm forever yours!'  
  
"The licensing bureau must be insane," Mimi snorts. Tai gives her a hurt look.  
"Hey, it's my way or the highway, sister," he drawls, teasing her. Sora laughs.  
"I think we'll go with your way, thank you very much. C'mon, Mimi, let's see if he's as good a driver as he says."  
They climb in, and Tai takes off. Mimi leans back in her seat in shotgun with a sigh.  
"Oh, this is much better. I like this a lot," she says, a bit sarcastically.  
"Bug off, Mimi. How come you get shotgun, anyway?" Sora says; she's not really mad, just joking around.  
"Because you got the aisle seat at the ballet," Mimi jokes back. "Besides, my house is closer, and I don't want to climb over you on the way out. Stop being a baby."  
"Hey, why climb over me when you could climb over Tai?" Sora says with impeccable logic. Mimi giggles.  
"Good point," she agrees, glancing over at Tai, who has gone a bit red about the ears.  
  
It's the way you love me, it's a feeling like this  
  
"We're here," he says pointedly, pulling over at the sidewalk by Mimi's house. Mimi shrugs, looking 'innocent'.  
"Okay, okay, you don't have to get all pushy." She opens the door and climbs out, pausing just long enough to put in a last remark. "Thanks for the ride..." Leaning in, she whispers to Sora, "Hey, if you're not home by midnight, I volunteer to tell your parents you've eloped."  
With that, she slams the door and hurries up the walk into her apartment, closing the front door quickly behind her.  
  
It's centrifugal motion, it's perpetual bliss  
  
"She's nuts," Sora mutters, blushing, as Tai pulls out from the curb again, clueless to the girls' exchange.  
"What did she say?" Tai asks absently, heading for the corner. Sora snorts, unbuckling her seatbelt to scoot over into the passenger seat instead of the cramped middle seat.  
"She said we're going to elope."  
The truck swerves suddenly, and Sora lets out a yell as she is thrown across the seat...and into Tai's lap.  
"Ack!" Scrambling into shotgun, she stares at Tai. "Are you crazy? What on earth was that?"  
"Sorry, sorry," Tai says hurriedly, quickly regaining control of the vehicle, and his wits. "I was...um...surprised..."  
"You could say that," Sora scowls, buckling her seatbelt.  
  
It's that pivotal moment, it's-ahh-unsinkable  
  
As they continue to drive, Sora frowns. Why was he so startled by Mimi's stupid joke? Could he maybe...nah. Sora shakes her head, dismissing the idea as silly. Still, there was that Email from when they were kids... But that was years ago, and he hadn't done anything of the sort since. No, that was impossible.  
Still...would she really mind if it was just a little bit possible?  
"Well, here's your stop," Tai says, pulling over once again. He idles the motor, waiting for her to get out. Sora pauses, weighing her options...  
"Thanks," she says simply, and leans over to give him a peck on the cheek before climbing out of the truck. "It means a lot. I would have died trying to walk here in these abysmal shoes. Don't drive off any overpasses, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she turns and heads into the building. The truck sits there for a minute, then the motor revs up, as if it's giving itself a shake, and it pulls away.  
Sora smiles. She knows what she needed to know; she saw the expression on Tai's face, just before she turned to get out of the car. Smiling happily, she skips into the building, high heels and all, and hurries for the elevator to call Mimi.  
  
This kiss, this kiss!  
  
(flash forward again, three months, to the night of the underclassmen's prom)  
  
You can kiss me in the moonlight, on the rooftop under the sky  
  
The high school is lit with colored light and shaking with the pounding bass of a popular dance tune. Outside, in the courtyard, four teenagers sit talking and chatting happily on benches spaced around a single tree in a planter.  
"He almost fell off of his chair when she told him yes," Matt says, laughing. "And then she showed up at our house tonight in this little pink dress, and I had to quick grab his elbow to keep him from falling over for real!"  
General laughter rings out from the listeners.  
  
You can kiss me with the windows open while the rain comes pouring inside  
  
"Yeah, my mom is not very fond of that dress," Tai says with a roll of his eyes. "She and Kari must have spent hours trying to find a dress that would satisfy them both, and Kari ended up paying half of the price of it because Mom thought it was 'too short in the skirt'." He snorts. "I'm not saying I don't agree with her, but isn't she old enough to decide on her own dress?"  
"If she's old enough to fill out that thing, I'd say she's plenty old enough to pick it," Mimi says dryly. Matt and Sora laugh; Tai winces.  
"Oh, it is so weird to think about my baby sister that way," he mutters.  
"Okay, one minute she's 'old enough', now she's your 'baby sister'?" Sora says with a grin. "Make up your mind, Kamiya!"  
  
Kiss me in sweet slow motion, let's let everything slide  
  
"Well, I think I'll go check on how my baby brother is doing with your baby sister," Matt says, standing up. "Coming, Mimi?"  
She eagerly follows him. Of course, what she doesn't know is that Matt is actually quite keen to continue this conversation, but is going inside because he saw her shivering in her sleeveless dress and doesn't have a jacket to give her...still, what she doesn't know won't hurt her.  
Tai looks over at Sora with a sigh. "You know, I realize that Kari's gotten older...but it's just that she'll always be my baby sister, to me."  
"Well, she has grown up nicely," Sora says with a smile. "We all have."  
"You especially," Tai says, and blushes, not sure if that came out right. Sora, however, looks charmed.  
  
You've got me floating, you've got me flying!  
  
"Thank you," she says shyly. Tai wonders where this sudden tension in the air came from, and then wonders if they should go inside, too...but the stars are so nice, and it's so loud and crowded in the gym.  
"Cold?" he asks. Sora shakes her head, and shivers.  
"Well, maybe a little...but the stars are so pretty, and I really don't want to go back into the crush."  
Tai laughs at this last. We really are of one mind, he thinks to himself. Encouraged by this insight, he slides over to put an arm around her. Sora snuggles against his side, glad for the warmth...and enjoying the contact. For a while, they look up at the stars.  
  
It's the way you love me, it's a feeling like this  
  
"It's getting cloudy," Sora murmurs after some time has passed. Tai frowns, and realizes that she's right, almost half the sky has been covered in clouds in the time that he has sat there, almost dozing off.  
"Maybe we should go in," he says reluctantly. He definitely doesn't want to; this is the best feeling he's had in ages, just watching the stars with Sora's head on his shoulder, but he knows that she'll probably want to keep her dress dry if it rains.  
"Why?" Sora says contentedly, still looking at the sky that she was named for. "I love a good rainstorm."  
  
It's centrifugal motion, it's perpetual bliss  
  
"But your dress..." Tai starts to protest, but then stops as he is hit with a sudden feeling of deja vu. "I know you like rainstorms, so what's a few raindrops between friends?" Relaxing, Tai nods. "Right. Hey, what's a few raindrops between friends?"  
Friends? Sora thinks. Or maybe something more... Lifting her head, she looks him in the eye.  
  
It's that pivotal moment, it's-ahh-subliminal  
This kiss, this kiss, it's criminal  
  
"Of course, you realize that it may ruin your hair," she teases. Tai smiles, but his gaze is serious.  
"It's worth it," he says firmly.  
"Worth...what?"  
  
It's the way you love me darling  
It's the way you love me baby  
  
  
"Worth being with you..."  
Sora blinks.  
"Tai, that's kind of cliche."  
He looks at her, a bit hurt. "I-"  
Putting a finger on his lips to shush him, Sora smiles.  
"It's also incredibly sweet," she adds, her eyes warm despite the rain that has begun to fall in tiny drops, freckling the fabric of her dress with dots of darker color.  
Tai flounders for a minute, not sure what to do with this sudden change of attitude. Then he realizes how utterly obvious his plan of action is. He leans forward...  
  
It's the way you love me, it's a feeling like this  
It's centrifugal motion, it's perpetual bliss  
  
Back in the gym, Mimi and Matt lean on a windowsill, watching in amusement as their best friends kiss, oblivious to the rain falling in great drops around them.  
"Well, it's about time," Mimi remarks, rolling her eyes. Matt arches an eyebrow.  
"I see we have the original cynic here."  
"Never!" Mimi exclaims, cracking a smile. "You're talking to the girl who bawled her eyes out over the dog in Old Yeller! I just think that some things take time...and other things take a lot more time than they should."  
"Great minds think alike," Matt responds with a lopsided grin that temporarily erases all thoughts of Tai and Sora from Mimi's mind. "Hey, they're playing a slow song next...want to dance? I think we can leave them to it," he adds, nodding at the couple outside. "They probably wouldn't notice if the population of the San Francisco Zoo stampeded through the courtyard."  
"I'd love to," Mimi says, with a sparkling smile. Slipping her hand into Matt's, she lets him lead her off into the crowd, past TK and Kari, who are already dancing, TK looking quite dizzy. Outside, the rain continues to fall, but neither Tai nor Sora minds in the least.  
  
It's that pivotal moment, it's-ahh-subliminal  
This kiss, this kiss, it's criminal  
  
It's a good night for romance.  
  
This kiss, this kiss...  
  
  



End file.
